Rune Seeker

“Ready?” Hiral asked his double.

“Wish I had one of those raincoats,” Right complained, but then nodded. “Where to first?”

“With the rain this heavy, I can’t imagine anybody would want to go far—even if they don’t believe in the Enemy—so that’s our first goal.”

He pointed at what looked to be a mostly intact building just up the street. When Right didn’t lodge any further complaints, Hiral did one more quick look up and down the roadway, then darted out into the rain.

The cold water hit him like a slap to the face, the rain far more frigid than before, and the wind lashed it down the street with painful ferocity. Even the raincoat Hiral had did little to shield him from the onslaught, the hood getting swept off his head, and he could feel the rain already running down his back.

“Raincoat doesn’t help anyway,” he told Right while he put his arm up in front of his face to try and block the worst of the deluge.

“I can see that,” Right responded, doing the same thing, and the two of them pushed their way up the street against the rain, their above-average physical stats doing little to make it easier. What would’ve normally been a quick ten-second jog took three times as long, and when they finally ducked into the door, a shiver ran through Hiral’s entire body.

“Was it that cold before?” Hiral asked, shaking himself to try and get some of the water off. Good thing he didn’t have hair anymore…

“No, definitely not,” Right said. “Let’s hope they’re in this place. I don’t want to search the whole town.”

“You’d think as soon as they felt how cold it was, they would’ve gone right back inside,” Hiral mumbled, starting deeper into the building.

Left had said there probably wasn’t anything to fight—and win against—but Hiral still drew one of his RHCs as he moved. Thunder boomed above them as they cautiously made their way down the hall, lightning flashing through the long-broken windows and drawing stretched outlines across the floor and wall.

The silhouettes of broken walls and buildings outside played out like a slideshow as Hiral walked the hall, each window a different scene. The first, a square building beside a twisted tree. The second, a broken and crooked wall. Third, empty space except for a trio of thick, curving vines reaching down from above.

That last one was so different from the others that he paused and waited for the lightning to flash again.

Just empty space.

Another flash, and more empty space.

“Did you see that too?” Hiral asked Right quietly.

“I saw something,” Right answered. “And I don’t like it.”

“Maybe Seena doing something?”

“Doubt it. Fitch might have vine powers we don’t know about. Seems a common theme for them. The shiver crawling up my spine tells me that’s not the case, though.”

Another flash revealed a still-empty space, so Hiral stalked ahead, his eyes alternating between the hallway ahead of him and the blustering night outside. The near constant flashing of lightning provided a lot of light, but it also ruined his night vision for the intervals between. Whatever that had been, it was gone for the moment. Could it have just been his imagination if he and Right both saw it? That didn’t seem likely, but then again, maybe they shared…

CRAAAAASH. The ground shook as a tremendous impact sounded from a block or two over. Silhouettes of flying rubble flashed on the wall from the lightning, and Hiral stumbled sideways. Thunk… thunk… thunk. Thunkthunkthunk. It came in quick succession, something pelting the roof and walls of the building, and stones the size of Hiral’s fist shot through the windows. Only sheer luck saved him from taking a rock in the side of the head, and he dove for the wall between the windows as more and more debris came tumbling down.

“What is that?” Hiral asked Right, who just shrugged while ducking in another space between windows. “Whatever, we can’t stay here.” A second massive CRASH shook the ground—this one closer—and more rubble rained down on the building.

As soon as the worst of the deadly rain of debris subsided, Hiral was on his feet and dashing further down the hall, Right hot on his heels. The RHC went back on his thigh, and Hiral held a constant shield of minor Rejection right above them as they exited the hall into the next room. It wouldn’t save them from the whole building falling on them, but it should at least stop a flying rock from conking him on the head.

“Where to?” Right asked.

“Debating whether I want to know what”—CRASH—“that is, or not,” Hiral said, staggering to the side from the ground shaking.

“I’m voting for no,” Right said. “But we may not have a choice in the matter. It’s getting closer.”

CRASH. This time, it came from practically the next building over, and suddenly, the wall right beside Hiral exploded inward as something hit it from the outside. Hiral leapt back into a roll, his RHCs coming out as he did a full rotation and found his feet, then leveled the weapons at the dust cloud. Rain poured in through the new space, lightning flashed, and a form took shape as the dust quickly settled.

Fingers on his triggers, Hiral watched as the top half of a solid-stone figure started to push itself up and shake its head.

“Lonil?” Hiral asked, the red bar above the tank already below half. What happened?

The stone head snapped to the side, eyes widening as it recognized Hiral and Right.

“Get away! You have to…” Lonil started, lightning flashing, then something yanked him back outside so hard, his face clapped down on the floor before he vanished into the night.

Shit!

Hiral’s weapons stayed trained on the space as he stood and carefully approached the hole in the wall. Thunder shook the building all around him while the constant thrum of rain pattered on the rubble next to his feet. His back to the cold, stone wall, he looked down at the line of blood from where Lonil’s face had hit the ground as it quickly faded, diluted by the water. Then he carefully—oh so carefully—peeked just one eye past the edge of the wall.

There was nothing there.

No Lonil, and no sign of what had taken him.

Where did he…?

SLAAAAAM. Lonil hit the ground right in front of Hiral—like he’d fallen straight down after being tossed very high into the sky—his stone body cratering the alley between buildings even as the force of the impact threw out a shockwave that knocked Hiral back into the hallway. No sooner did he hit the floor than he found his feet and darted back to the opening. With a fall like that, Hiral had to get Lonil to Wule and Cal. It was the only chance the tank had.

Except when Hiral looked back outside, the alley was empty again except for the disturbingly man-shaped crater in the paved alley.

No, empty wasn’t entirely true—there was a stone hand, from the elbow down, lying next to the crater.

Hiral almost reached out to the hand to bring it with him, but what good would that do? None, and the risk wasn’t worth it, so he grimaced and turned away. A shake of his head to Right, then he dashed back down the hall, eyes glancing out the windows at every flash of lightning. Around a corner at the end of the hall, Hiral finally stopped and looked in both directions while Right caught up.

“Lonil is gone,” Hiral said quietly. “That just leaves Fitch.”

“And we could… just leave Fitch,” Right said, then sighed. “Even as I say it, I know it isn’t true. Part of me wishes we could leave him.”

“Me too,” Hiral said.

“Probably the Left part,” Right grumbled. “Plan?”

“Sounds like the commotion outside has died down for the moment. Whatever it was… it must’ve been after Lonil. As long as we don’t attract any more attention, we should be able to stay hidden. Let’s see if we can find a way to move through the buildings instead of in the open down the street.”

Right looked down the hallway they hadn’t checked yet, back out the front door the way they’d come, then finally down the hallway they’d just run. “If Lonil came from that direction,” he said, pointing in the third direction, “it’s probably because Fitch is that way too.”

“Great,” Hiral said with a shake of his head, but he stopped when something other than the boom of thunder and patter of rain reached his ears. “Wait, do you hear that?” he asked quietly.

“Hear what?” Right said, though the double cocked his head to the side.

Hiral held up a finger for silence as he concentrated on his hearing. There it was again. Higher pitch than the rain, and only breaking through when the wind slowed down. It wasn’t constant, but it was familiar…

A voice. A shouting voice.

“…il… r… r… ou…” the woman’s voice said.

“Damnit, it’s Cal,” Hiral said. “She’s shouting for Lonil.”

“Why would they let her out of the room with all that crashing?” Right asked, and the two of them ducked over to the door, peering out into the pouring rain. “Do you see her?”

“No. She must be around front,” Hiral said, the memory of Lonil face-down in the alleyway flashing in front of his eyes. He couldn’t let that happen to another person. “We’re going,” he said without giving his brain time to talk him out of it, then ran out into the frigid rain.

The wind lashed at him immediately, like it was trying to throw him from his feet and beat him into the ground, but he raised his arms in front of his face and pushed himself forward. Caleon’s voice danced between peals of thunder, carried along by that same brutal wind in a strange rising and falling that could’ve almost been his imagination. Lightning flashed overhead, long forks of it dancing across the sky first in one direction and then the other.

One foot, then the next, he headed for the intersection and then around to the front of the building, the route faster than working his way through the halls to the front door. He had to get to her before she attracted anything else’s attention. He had to…

The building to his left exploded in his direction, and Hiral jerked his head that way just in time to see Right lunge in front of him before the shockwave hit. Right crashed into Hiral with the force of a runaway carriage, and then they were both in the air, wood and debris flying with them until Hiral hit something hard—stone-wall hard.

Mercifully, years and years of rain and wear had weakened the stone wall enough that Hiral went through it—instead of pasting onto the side of it—and crashed into the room beyond. He hit the ground, the weight of Right on top of him, then slid painfully along the floor. The ripping of fabric tore in his ear as his raincoat shredded, but he finally came to a stop before his skin started to do the same thing.

“Right… are you okay?” Hiral asked, the weight on top of him not moving. No response, so he shifted, pain blossoming in half a dozen places, and rolled Right off him as gently as he could. “Right, say something.” A flash of lightning gave him a good look at the double.

Wounds covered the entire front of the man, solar energy leaking out of him like blood in massive streams. Everything from his left shoulder down was missing. Hiral’s brain froze at the sheer severity of the wounds, only one simple sentence breaking through the shock of it—that could’ve been me.

“Right… I’ll…” Hiral started, but an ominous creak of the building cut him off, and he looked straight up.

Then the roof collapsed.